Happy 2015! I appreciate your visit to my
website, and apologize for not having many
updates in the last year; however, that was due
to big changes in my world, and a great deal of
writing. I can't go into much detail quite yet
about my new venture, but let me just say that
if you've been wondering why I haven't posted
any news about upcoming series romance releases,
it's because I had a great creative opportunity
and jumped at the chance to broaden my horizons.

"Helen R.
Myers, in my opinion, is one of the great
romance writers of our time..."
-- Sharon Galligar Chance, Sharon's Garden of
Book Reviews.

Some of you may remember that I
lost my husband, Robert, nine years ago this February,
and then the publishing industry followed the music
industry into major upheaval. I'm proud and grateful
that during that period, I was able to write and publish
another dozen books bringing my total to 52 titles for
Mira, Silhouette and Harlequin. I believe at last count
I'm published in 27 countries and 22 or 23 languages.
But I also had reached my sixtieth birthday, and it was
time to review things, as well as think about the
future. No, I'm not talking about drafting my own bucket
list; rather, I grew more interested in writers'
creative rights, and professional dreams not yet
reached. As a result, I realized the time had come to
write what I believe in, rather than represent someone
else's brand that no longer speaks to things I agree
with, or can relate to.

Now here is one of those God moments--while I analyzed
which direction to take, partly because the loss of my
husband left me with little interest for focusing on
suspense, two writer-friends approached me with a
collaboration idea. I had already been asked four
previous times by others, but in every case, either the
individuals, or the stories weren't a good fit for me.
In this case, the fifth time proved right in every
aspect.

We finished our first mainstream novel in October and
hope to post some news shortly. Our website is already
being developed. Be assured, I'll have a link here for
you to connect to it.

While I remain in East Texas with four rescued dogs, the
family has changed a bit. We lost old Ben this summer.
As best as we could determine, he was 17--or close to
it. Pete turns 13 this month, and I fear he won't
achieve Ben's longevity, but he still loves to go for
rides--with the help of dog stairs to aid in climbing
into the RAV4 more easily. Meg is estimated to be 7 and
had some issues herself this year, which we have under
control with medication. Roxie is now around 2. Finally,
in November, Penny crawled to the front door the night
that Arctic blast was blowing in. Hardly more than skin
and bone, she had run from people who had seen her in
the area and tried to offer help. Apparently, she
understood that she wouldn't last another night in such
dire conditions. I gave her a bowl of warm chicken soup,
which I cook for all of my dogs, then brought her inside
and removed no less than 90 ticks from her emaciated
body. After another bowl of soup, she allowed me to
bathe her, and then she set to work making friends with
her new family.

We're guessing she's close to one-year old, and
continues to recover beautifully. She's almost put on
enough weight to deal with being spayed. She's a
black-and-tan coon hound with some interesting light
tan/gray coloring that sometimes gives her squirrel-like
markings. She also groans a good deal in her sleep, as
though she's reliving every lonely day, and terrifying
night, spent on her own. We can only imagine.

As for the DIY projects I wrote about last year--I did
get most of the interior of the house painted: a Tuscan
shade--cantaloupe--in the kitchen; rosemary in the
sunroom; Precious Stone (blue) in the main bathroom; and
Sand Stone in the hall and living room. I also ripped
out all of the carpeting and laid plank vinyl flooring
in the shade of Rustic Teak. That did cut into my
gardening quite a bit; however, it was a drier year
again, so that turned out to be a smart move.

Finally, the blog I intended to start didn't happen
because of the DIY work, the writing, and most important
being more accessible to my parents, who are now nearly
86 and 83. However, I did improve on my social network
activity.